Blog: Look it’s a bird! It’s a plane!... it’s a winning prototype

Look it’s a bird! It’s a plane!... it’s a winning prototype

What does it take to see the allied opportunities in a situation or to chase our winning prototype?

If ‘superman’ or a ‘super product’ were to be real and not science fiction, we would call them ‘winning prototype’ (WP). As individuals, corporations, businesses, and teams, we are all looking for WP in everything we do. Then of course we ‘go to market’. The WP doesn’t just stop at products and services, it’s the very part of our DNA. When we take up a habit, we prototype it by following it every day till we get a WP. What goes on behind the scenes is what takes the spotlight here.

A matter of time: The existing structure of our social fabric which tells us not to do work on our ‘me time’ often takes precedence over the WP. That’s what makes all the difference. Can you detangle yourself from the pre-set structure and chase that castle in the air or will you wait for some else to build it and then wish you have a slice of the glory.

The present: Often the situation, the challenges, the people and the resources or lack of it all add up to us calling it a day even with our WP. The answer is ‘the present’. The present is what it is. Despite all the limitations, the walls, the data to prove that the WP will not work, ‘the present’ dictates that the WP is just waiting to be unraveled. A colleague who says ‘yes’, a nod to try that hair brained idea, a resourceful solution against a cost intensive alternative. The present is here and now. Do we want to act on it or simply throw in the towel?

I have only this: Go to any startup event, be it a national level one, local or the on that receives government or corporate backing. The main reason a WP is not WP is that the group or people say ‘I have only X’ and ‘I need x, y and z to make it work’. Getting backing or not getting it, both have a silver lining. Not getting backing as proverbial as it may sound is an even bigger reason to forge ahead and pursue the WP, blindly if you will. Getting backing is like a pat on the back. You still need the drive and chutzpah to make WP work.

People who don’t believe: When a good idea takes root. It needs people to set it rolling. It needs people to use, people to deliver, people to make and people to clap and applaud. Every great enterprise takes time to grow from 1 to 2 and 2 to 4 and then on till infinity. I know of a professional colleague who after 15 years of work decided to pursue a career in training, with monthly commitments of 150000/- in cost of mortgage. It took a lot of weekends, a patent, testing and finally deployment of that WP to what is now a full time business for his friend, spouse and himself. All it took was balancing, daring, and risk taking.

I want to earn more: Most employees, if you ask them the reason for quitting it will be “I need a higher salary.” Not that earning more or living up to your potential is wrong. But there are so many ways to just earn money if that were the end we aimed for. I recollect my first job. I was thrilled with my first pay check of 10000 per month in India. People like me who were familiar with computers and spoke English well found themselves in a job at a BPO. Most of them also spent more than their pay check partying every weekend to compensate for the nights worked. Some bright sparks didn’t, with a nice paycheck these young guys took out a lease on a car, rented it out to the travel company that managed the transport to work. Little by little working for money became less of a reason to come to work. By the time they were 30, money was well on its way working for them. Sadly, I was not one of them.

We fail to see the allied opportunities in a situation.

We spend a life time chasing money, people, time and resource when they could well be chasing us. Now spend an hour dreaming and then go to work. And make that WP.